SometimesI believe my mother is still aliveand alone in her flatsitting in her nestof magazines, a forgotten coffee,a half-eaten meal, photographs,an empty sherry glassand misunderstandings.She survives on twice-weekly visitsfrom Age Concern, and a mini-spring cleaneach month by Molly Maids. The only difference is I no longer phone or visit.

Sunday, 21 January 2018

A new poetry anthology tackling mental health issues, Please Hear What I’m Not Saying, edited by Isabelle Kenyon, is to be published in February. Proceeds will go to the charity MIND.

Isabelle Kenyon is a Surrey based poet and a graduate in Theatre: Writing, Directing and Performance from the University of York. She is the author of poetry anthology, This is not a Spectacle and micro chapbook, The Trees Whispered, published by Origami Poetry Press. She is also the editor of MIND Poetry Anthology Please Hear What I'm Not Saying. You can read more about Isabelle and see her work at www.flyonthewallpoetry.co.uk.Isabelle writes: "I wanted to spread the word about the MIND Poetry Anthology which I have compiled and edited. Please Hear What I’m Not Saying will be available as an e-book and paperback on 8th February 2018. The anthology consists of poems from 116 poets and the book details a whole range of mental health experiences. The profits of the book with go to UK charity, MIND. The book came about through my desire to do a collaborative project with other poets and my desire to raise money for a charity desperately seeking donations to cope with the rising need for its work. I received over 600 poems and have narrowed this down to 180. As an editor, I have not been afraid to shy away from the ugly or the abstract, but I believe that the anthology as a whole is a journey – with each section the perspective changes. I hope that the end of the book reflects the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ for mental health and that the outcome of these last sections express positivity and hope."The anthology includes poems by Leicestershire-based writers, including Emma Lee, Sue Mackrell and Jonathan Taylor, as well as writers from the UK, US and elsewhere. For more information about the anthology, visit Isabelle's website, www.flyonthewallpoetry.co.uk.Featured below is one of the poems from the anthology, by the editor herself:Social Media invented Self LoveI’m not very good at this self love thing.I always look for strangers,thinking they could do it better,and I don’t post about it online,I forget,I’m no use,that girl with the juice blender and the personal trainer is far ahead of me –that’s why people pay herto promote beauty productsso other people can buy themand love themselves too.

Wednesday, 3 January 2018

Pattie McCarthy is the author of six books of poetry: Quiet Book, Marybones, Table Alphabetical of Hard Words, Verso, and bk of (h)rs from Apogee Press, and nulls from Horse Less Press. She is also the author of a dozen chapbooks, most recently margerykempething and qweyne wifthing from eth press. A former Pew Fellow in the Arts, McCarthy teaches literature and creative writing at Temple University in Philadelphia.Here are four of her sonnets from a longer sequence. goodwifthingthis year aged me twenty it's stupidto say but it's true it's them pills I took&c whatever at forty-five lady mary carey wrote hermeditation it's as good a time as anyI think you should know I walk the long wayhome circumambulate the seminarywhen I was a kid my friends would sled therehold on tight but I said I don't jumpfences to get closer to prieststhere are different categories of lossdon't confuse my sadness for guilt or regretI count counted backwards to it I hopeyou like how I'm wearing my effort now

goodwifthing

mercy a midden or a crown mercy

the witches come in silks with manbuns

reckless with optimism we go on

my father's body is probably gone

in truth I rarely think of it that way

good wyvern my daughterthing says she said

this year is twenty years maybe next time

I get to be the one who falls apart

depictions of the body as bloodless

weightless anemic plastic couldn't be

more distant from me I don't know how to

read them I cannot helpe peoples talking

of me of course I'm wrong about his body

but I'm horrorstruck thinking about it

goodwifthingmercy only goodwyfs from the otherside of town are witches that's obviousin my tongue of wool & flax is the lawin my autumnal teaching costume Iexercise the etymology ofgossamer for fifty minutesonce there was a daughterthing she watchedher cobwebs mercy a midden or crownher back to the hill her face to the sea& which is still to be seen to this daynote she is impassable at high tideunexpected catalogue archive ofthe flood a large accumulation of smallthingschalky softwhite left on my fingers

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